


However long the night

by ichiro51



Category: Dreamcatcher (Korea Band), Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:27:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25618087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ichiro51/pseuds/ichiro51
Summary: In an age where scientists have figured out time travel and teleportation, Kim Yoohyeon is stuck inside a research facility after gaining time travel abilities, and dying for a way to get out.
Kudos: 1





	1. Yoohyeon

In the age of the internet, smartphones, and television, there was only one question on everyone’s mind, ‘When will flying cars finally be invented?’ And I’m glad to report that scientists have finally done the impossible… 

Hah. Just kidding. All they did was figure out time travel. Nothing too important. I still fail to understand why they took out so much time and money to try to solve the mystery of time travel instead of just inventing flying cars. At least the public could use flying cars. Scientists have made sure that the public doesn’t have access to time travel. They only want it to be used for scientific purposes rather than personal gain. You know, they said the same thing two years ago when they figured out teleportation. 

If they don’t want the public to have access to time travellers and their abilities, then what did they do to ensure that, you ask? Well, it’s simple really. They locked up those with time travel abilities in research facilities to continue to be their guinea pigs. Sure, they give us money for letting them experiment on us and all, but we’ve lost all our freedom, and it’s suffocating. 

Oh, did I say ‘we’? Well, yes, I did. I bet you’re wondering, can I time travel? And the answer is, yes. But let me tell you, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. I always have someone making sure I’m not abusing my powers. There’s nothing I can really do with my powers. Sometimes, when no one’s looking, I use my powers to jump ahead a few seconds just to see if anyone will catch me doing it. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. It depends on which prison warden- as I call them- was watching over me. Sometimes I would try to go back to before I was taken to the research facility, but someone would always find me and take me back. My life was a spiral of useless tests and mundane schooling. 

When I was first brought to the research facility to be experimented upon, I was just 17 years old. I’m now a 20 year old woman, and I’ve wasted three precious years of my life in that stuffy building filled with fancy scientific equipment and white lab coats. At least I had my parents close by. Actually, that wasn’t that great either. My parents were scientists who both worked in the research facility, so when they heard that the facility was looking for volunteers to practice their time travel experiments on, my parents jumped on board right away and signed me up without even telling me about the opportunity first. They would go on and on about how I would finally make a difference in the world, and that I could be the key to figuring out time travel, but I tried to press the mute button in my mind whenever they spat out useless rants like that. 

I could care less about figuring out time travel. Back then, they had recently made a breakthrough on figuring out teleportation, and a few teleportation guinea pigs had gained teleportation powers as a result. My parents didn’t sign me up for the teleportation round of experiments because they thought it would be too dangerous then. But because they saw the success from that project, they sent their only daughter to a large building of scientists to be experimented on for the sake of science. 

The experiments ran for two years. Those were the longest, most grueling two years of my entire young life. There would be tests done on me at least two or three times a week, and the rest of the week was usually spent learning about equations, chemical reactions, history, and grammar. Every hour of my life had to fit a strict schedule, and there weren’t that many young volunteers, so I didn’t really have anyone to talk to. There were a few teenage girls, but whenever I tried to talk to them, all we ended up talking about was the experiments we had been through and our guesses of what they were doing to our bodies. 

There was this one girl, Kim Bora, who had been through the teleportation experiments and had gained teleportation powers. She didn’t like to use them often, for she did everything strictly by the book. She was uptight and dreadfully dull. She would never loosen up or take advantage of her powers. She was a rule follower who would always lecture me for even mentioning using her powers for her personal gain. She never mentioned why she was volunteering for the time travel experiments, but everyone seemed to worry about her. I guess they thought it wouldn’t be safe since she had already been through all the teleportation tests. But oh, the sake of scientific breakthroughs compelled her to let scientists confine her in a building and perform potentially harmful tests on her. Give me a break. Scientists aren't wizards. They don’t wield wands or conjure up magic potions. They use their limited knowledge to solve problems and mysteries. 

Another girl who seemed close to Bora, Lee Siyeon, was always paranoid that the scientists were going to do something to her that would mess with her brain, or that would leave her paralyzed, or dead. I once told her that if she was dead at least she wouldn’t have to suffer through anymore tests and confinement. She didn’t find it funny. I found that when we people were put in anxiety inducing circumstances, they tended to lose their sense of humor. Thankfully, my sense of humor and I were attached at the hip. But that caused me to receive quite a lot of scorn from others who thought that I didn’t take anything seriously. They were wrong. I took a lot of things seriously. But in order to lighten the grave mood, I would usually try to crack a joke to make the volunteers laugh instead of worry. 

Somehow, I had been dubbed as the troublemaker of the TEAL research facility. Now, TEAL was the company that my parents worked for, and that I had not so willingly volunteered to. Anyway, I didn’t think ‘troublemaker’ was the best fit for me. Sure, I was carefree and loved to mess around, but that behavior seemed to be taboo among the volunteers. All the volunteers were too busy writing their wills just in case, instead of having any fun. Many of the volunteers- including Lee Siyeon- were poor and jobless and only jumped at this opportunity because of the money involved. Many of them had families, loved ones, or pets to go back to. I didn’t. I didn’t understand why they would take the risk if they had something to lose. Especially with how anxious and stiff they all were. They couldn’t wait to leave the research facility, except, whoops. They still can’t. After time travel was made possible, we were all forced to stay inside, cooped up in the facility for an ‘indefinite period of time,’ which meant forever in my books. It was miserable and suffocating.

It still is. And that’s why, I have to get out of here. I’ve made a map of the research facility, granted, it’s not that great due to my lack of artistic abilities, but I can at least understand it. I’ve made a note of every visible door and security camera. It’s pretty thorough, if I may say so myself. No one knows of my plans to leave. Not that I’d tell anyone, anyway. I’m a grown woman, now. I shouldn’t waste my limited days on this earth playing around and having to get a medical check every week due to my ability. 

I haven’t even told the person I’m the closest to here. I don’t want to take any chances. Especially considering the fact that he’s the son of the CEO of TEAL. His name is Han Jisung. He had begun interning at the research facility a few months after I arrived there. One day at dinner, he had made his way around the cafeteria, talking to each and every volunteer and TEAL employee he came across. It made me roll my eyes. I hated to see people put on a show just because people expected a lot out of them. And trust me, people expected a lot out of Han Jisung. 

I would often hear the TEAL employees whispering to each other about the CEO’s son, and now he was the top of his class in grades, and how he had gotten straight A’s in high school, and all of that. The guy did have a lot to measure up to. I knew everyone was going to compare him to his immeasurably successful father.

As I was saying, he was making his way around the cafeteria, and finally he approached me. Now, I made it my mission to make sure I didn’t spend more than 5 minutes in the cafeteria per day. The place was quiet and the mood was chilling and just downright depressing. I usually just grabbed my food and ate in my room. But that day, I had abandoned my normal routine.

Once I saw that Jisung had seen me, and was starting to walk towards me, I quickly grabbed my food and walked as quickly as I could without it looking suspicious. I was in such a rush that I had forgotten to grab a drink. It wasn’t that I was avoiding him… Well, yeah, I was avoiding him. I didn’t want to talk to someone who wore a facade and a fake smile. That and I usually tried to avoid talking to others in general, due to the depressing conversations the volunteers would usually have. 

But Jisung had noticed me fleeing from him, so he decided to pick up his pace and follow after me. I then made my feet move faster, and decided to walk around the cafeteria in circles to frustrate him. The CEO’s son was too clever to fall for my tricks, however. He cut through the center of the cafeteria and ended up right next to me. I contemplated running away and claiming it was a side effect of the experiments I had been through, but Jisung acted quicker than I could think. 

He put his hand on my shoulder to get me to turn around to face him. I turned around in shock and he threw me an amused smile and asked why I was running away from him. I fumbled through a ridiculous excuse and watched to see what his reaction would be. An amused smile had tugged at the corners of his lips as he walked to a table and patted the seat next to him, to motion for me to sit next to him. I had reluctantly trudged over to the seat and sat down. I gave yet another excuse of why I needed to urgently leave, and decided to use the excuse about obtaining a side effect from an experiment. Now this took him by surprise. I watched as his dark eyes blinked a few times, not knowing what to do. He stared blankly at me for a second before suddenly laughing. The defensive side of me took over, and I started grilling the poor boy about why I was at the research facility and how much I hated it. I suddenly stared at the boy in front of me and abruptly told him to stand up. Despite his confusion he did as I asked. When I stared straight ahead at him, I ended up staring at his eyes. I started to laugh and Jisung gave me a confused look. 

“You’re so short!” I had randomly remarked, to Jisung’s surprise. 

“And you find that amusing?” Jisung had asked, confused. 

“Well, yeah. Hey, I rarely laugh here, so you should take pride in the fact that you actually made Kim Yoohyeon laugh. Usually, the only person who can make me laugh is… well, me.”

“Ah, so you’re Kim Yoohyeon?”

I remember being so puzzled over the fact that he had heard of me. He went on to explain that he had heard some of the other employees complaining about me. Apparently I had spoken out in class or something like that. 

“Yeah, that’s me, the troublemaker of TEAL’s research facility, as some call me.”

“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Yoohyeon. My name is Han Jisung, and I’m interning here,” Jisung had introduced himself, extending his hand for me to shake. 

I remember staring at his hand like it was contaminated or something and then looking back up at him. “Yeah, I’ve heard of you. You’re the CEO’s son,” I had said, slapping his hand for a high five that was more of a low five, which took him by surprise. 

He had given me a bewildered look, and I expected him to leave, but he stayed right where he was. I reluctantly stayed as well, and attempted to hold a conversation with him. I was surprised he had put up with my tomfoolery, but I knew he was just trying to be nice.

Strangely enough, he kept coming up to me during meal times to have a conversation with me. I had started to realize that maybe he was actually a nice person, and he didn’t need to put on a facade. He was real. And even though that was refreshing, he was extremely naive. So I tried to set him straight with detailed, exaggerated explanations of the pain and horror I had faced in the TEAL research facility. To my shock, he didn’t seem shocked or afraid based on what I had told him. He just nodded and soaked in the new information. 

To my dismay, he never really gave me any reaction, no matter what insanity I might have been spewing out. So I ended up giving up on trying to scare him and began to open up to him. Whenever I had leftover rage and needed to vent, I told him all of it. And he listened. And the best thing was, he had a girlfriend. So I didn’t need to worry about catching feelings, or wondering if he had caught feelings for me. It made our relationship less complicated, and I appreciated that. Although, he was dating Kim Bora. And I would often rant about her rule following, Miss Perfect, self. And he would still listen. He wouldn’t get upset or annoyed at me. 

That’s why, I do feel bad about not telling him my plan to run away. I’ll definitely miss him, but there’s no way I can stay here any longer. I’ve tried to picture what I might do after I leave, it’s not like I can present myself out in the open or anything. TEAL would find me. I thought of any hiding places I knew around town. First, I needed to get out of the research facility. And that would be no small feat considering all the security inside and outside the building. But my itch for freedom took over and there was nothing I could do to stop it.


	2. Jisung

“So, do you know Kim Yoohyeon?” I casually ask Bora.

Bora gives me a confused look as she looks up from her book. From what she’s told me, the book’s a science fiction novel about time travel and aliens or something like that. 

“Kim Yoohyeon? What about her? Ah, you hang out a lot with her, don’t you?”

I answered with a simple yes as images of Yoohyeon flooded into my mind. She really was a wonder. She was nothing like the other volunteers here. And that’s what made her so fun to be around. She was the black sheep in a sea of solemn and rule abiding volunteers. 

“Well, yes, I know her. But she doesn’t have the best reputation among the volunteers and TEAL employees,” Bora said with a frown.

“Ah,” is all I respond with. 

I already knew that, of course. I didn’t blame Yoohyeon, though. I remember when she told me her story, 3 years ago. Back then I was still interning at TEAL, and I made it my goal to get a chance to talk with as many of the volunteers as I could. I felt bad for them, and I wanted to show my support and gratitude as the son of the CEO of TEAL. But Yoohyeon had run away when she saw me coming near her. I would have never thought that a friendship would bloom from that interaction. 

It’s been 3 long years since I first met Yoohyeon, and so much has changed. I’m now an official employee of TEAL, and Yoohyeon is as restless as ever. Everyday she complains about wanting to be set free into the real world. Her words, not mine. I pity her of course, so I try to do everything in my power to make her feel comfortable, but it’s impossible to confine someone like Yoohyeon. 

One day, a few weeks after we had just met, I asked Yoohyeon what kind of things she liked to do, like her hobbies. She responded with, “Just have fun and stay carefree.” Her answer surprised me, and I tried to imagine what types of hobbies she actually enjoyed. 

“Then… how about when you leave TEAL? What do you want to do with your life then?” 

I still remember the mischievous gleam in her eye as she replied with, “The same thing. I just want to have fun and stay carefree.”

I tried not to let the shock I felt show on my face. Did she really not have any goals or anything? How did she think she was going to get a job or earn money with that mentality? 

“Actually… It’s not they’re ever going to let me out of prison, anyway. But if I do get out… Well…” I remember Yoohyeon’s hesitation as she stared at me, pondering whether she should continue with her sentence or not. Finally she had sighed. “I’ve always wanted to be a baker.”

From that moment on, I couldn’t stop imagining Yoohyeon in a small bakery frosting cupcakes or something. But her answer did make me feel sick in my stomach. For some reason it felt that it would be easier for the girl if she didn’t have a dream or goal. Because, well, I had no idea if she was ever going to get to leave TEAL. I still don’t. TEAL has kept all the time travel volunteers stuck in the research facility for the time being. They were planning to start to release them a month ago, under supervision, of course, but before they could do that, disaster struck. 

TEAL has a system where they can monitor each volunteer, and they can tell if one traveled back or forward in time. There are certain TEAL employees who have time travel ability, and they use their ability to stop the volunteers from changing anything in the past or future. 

But two months ago, someone had changed a small portion of the past without getting caught by a TEAL employee. At least, that’s what I’ve been told. I don't know what they changed, or if I would even remember what the original was, since it’s already been changed. But that incident caused the TEAL employees who were working in the time travel department to panic. They then tightened security and kept a close eye on the volunteers to ensure that something like that wouldn’t happen again. 

That led to the creation of the Butterfly Hound. The Butterfly Hound was a TEAL group made up of TEAL employees that had the time travel ability. The purpose of the Butterfly Hound was to catch time travelers who illegally used their abilities before they successfully change the past, present, or future. So far, their services weren’t that necessary, but it was always good to be prepared. 

I look back up at Bora, and I suddenly come crashing back onto planet Earth. I often let my mind run with my various thoughts, but I try to keep that to a limit while I’m with Bora. Bora is a fascinating woman, really. She’s very open minded and dependable. She’s strong and intelligent. While I was growing close to Kim Yoohyeon, I was also growing close to Kim Bora. Kim Bora didn’t complain to me or suck up to me just because I was the CEO’s son. She treated me normally, which was strange for me, but refreshing nonetheless. I don’t quite know how it had happened, but after a year of friendship with Bora, my feelings had changed. I tried my best to hide my feelings and bury them, for I didn’t think my dad would accept me crushing on a volunteer, but I couldn’t stop my heart. My heart had chased after her, and I had no choice but to follow it. It had turned out that Bora felt the same way about me. We decided to date in secret, and to others it appeared as if we were just normally hanging out like we usually did, but Yoohyeon started to catch on. She somehow knew me well enough to know that something was different about me. She even told me that my smile was different. I didn’t want to lie to Yoohyeon, so I told her the truth. 

“Oh, man, wait till I tell the others,” she said with that mischievous twinkle in her eyes, once I had told her.

“Wait, no, no, no. You can’t tell anyone,” I had said, panicked. 

She then promised not to tell anyone, and didn’t bring it up again until she saw the two of us together the next month. She technically didn’t say anything about it, she just flashed Bora a knowing smile and walked away. 

Bora was surprised, but I had explained to her the situation. That’s another thing about Bora, she’s understanding and patient. Even though she’s a volunteer, I know that the leader of the Butterfly Hound was going to ask her to join. Bora had both teleportation and time travel abilities. That, combined with her intelligence and quick thinking, made her a perfect pit for the Butterfly Hound. 

“So, Bora…” I begin, an excited smile beginning to form on my mouth. “You’ve been living here for years, haven’t you?”

She looks up at me in surprise and gives me a puzzled look. “Yeah, why?”

“Well… Haven’t you ever considered getting a job?”

“A job? What do you mean?”

“Well…” I nervously start, not knowing how’ll she respond. “How would you like to join the Butterfly Hound?” I finally spit out. 

One more thing I should mention. The guy who started that Butterfly Hound group? That was me. Once I heard about the time travel incident, I took the initiative to create a group to prevent that from happening in the future. 

I watch as Bora stares at me with wide eyes. “Wha- What? Are you joking?”

An amused smile crosses my lips as I take Bora’s hand. “Join the Butterfly Hound. I think you’d be a valuable addition to the group.”

“But I- I’m not a TEAL employee…”

“Well… That can be arranged.” 

“What? Hey, you don’t have to do this just because we’re dating,” Bora says with a frown. 

“I’m not. Trust me. If I didn’t believe you could do this, then I wouldn’t have asked you.”

Bora continues to stare at me in bewilderment. I don’t think she knows what to think about all of this. I look at the time and realize I have a meeting to attend in a few minutes. I remind Bora of this, and softly advise her to take her time with her decision. I give her hand a gentle squeeze before leaving for my meeting. 

I walk down the halls of the TEAL research facility trying to think of how Bora will respond to my offer. I don’t see how she could turn it down, and I certainly don’t want her to turn it down. But I guess it’s up to her.

“Hey, Han Jisung!” a loud voice suddenly shouts out.

I instantly smile at the sound of the familiar voice. I turn around to face Yoohyeon, who’s holding her phone up in annoyance. 

“What’s wrong?”

“Did you get my texts? I’ve been wondering where you were…” Yoohyeon comments, concern filling her dark eyes.

I frown, surprised to find out that concern really is an emotion that Kim Yoohyeon feels. I pull out my phone, curious about her texts, just to see that Yoohyeon texted ‘hey’ to me 20 times. 

“I was with Bora. Are you alright?” I ask.

Yoohyeon sighs and puts her phone back into her pocket. “I just wanted to make sure you got my texts… that’s all…” 

And with that she turns around and walks away. I’m left staring after her, confused as to what just happened. Yoohyeon and I text quite a bit, why would she suddenly want to make sure our texts work? I can’t help but think there’s something more to Yoohyeon’s surprising behavior.


End file.
